Oscar Piastri’s decisive, race-winning pass on McLaren Formula 1 team-mate and title rival Lando Norris on the first real lap of the Belgian Grand Prix was so good it felt scary.
The quality of it can quite literally be measured, with data of that opening lap helping to showcase Piastri’s racecraft and his boldness.
A superior run out of La Source meant Piastri was so close to Norris on the run to Eau Rouge he cleverly, briefly backed off to around 75% throttle as revealed by data from F1-Tempo, which gave Piastri enough room “to be as brave as I could” as the cars ascended the hill in damp conditions.
Both had big lifts halfway up the hill as they scrabbled for grip at 300km/h, but while Norris got on full throttle again sooner, he needed a confidence lift back to 87% throttle at Raidillon. Whereas Piastri, knowing that this run onto the Kemmel Straight could well decide the grand prix, had kept his foot pinned.
As they flashed across the crest, Piastri’s run was already mighty. He timed his move to the left of Norris with barely millimetres to spare, and blasted by surprisingly early on the straight.
“When I watched the onboard back, it didn't look quite as scary as it felt in the car,” Piastri said.
“I knew that I had to be very committed to pull that off.”
For the first time in this title battle, Piastri has wheeled out the boldness and bravery we saw a couple of times in 2024.
Last year, Piastri ruthlessly passed Norris on the first lap at Monza, a move that would have been the race-winning pass had McLaren not been gazumped by Ferrari on strategy. He also mugged Charles Leclerc for the win in Baku with a mega, decisive move on the brakes.
So far in 2025 Piastri’s championship bid has been built on a strong qualifying record, good consistency, sharp racecraft and his cool demeanour. He’s handled the pressure of the battle generally a bit better than Norris had.
With that Spa move, though, something else came to the fore. Piastri had one chance to beat Norris and took it, capitalising on small Norris misjudgements and taking a big, calculated risk.
Everything that followed was textbook Piastri in 2025, but it was the first time he’s shown he can and will lean on his killer instinct in this title fight.
Maybe, as Norris hypothetised, it was inevitable that the tow would pull the following car into the lead whichever way round they were as it did in the sprint race the day before with Max Verstappen passing Piastri.
But in the race Piastri had left nothing to chance, which he deserves credit for. And while Norris was the lead car, and had the unenviable task testing out the conditions for everyone else, he also had the best visibility and no aero disturbance.
This was not the only part of the start Norris will reflect he could have been better in. He immediately acknowledged post-race he “didn’t have the best Turn 1”, which he wanted to look at, as the wheelspin on the exit after partly covering the inside line allowed Piastri the sniff he took full advantage.
But Norris had also failed to get the jump on Piastri in the first place. With conditions necessitating a rolling start, and Norris controlling the pace as the cars exited Stavelot, he opted to ‘go’ very early - halfway to Blanchimont.
This always left him a little vulnerable to the cars behind getting a tow, and it was exacerbated by Piastri reacting to the start perfectly.
In fact, so good was Piastri at going with Norris, that he needed to take a big lift through Blanchimont, which was flat for Norris, down to 39% throttle. Piastri was not allowed to overtake into the final chicane, so Norris was safe, but he did not manage that restart with this in mind - the intention was to get the jump on Piastri, and he failed to do it.
Piastri’s superior run in the tow meant even with the natural expansion of the gap again through the chicane, he was able to cross the line and start the race well within striking distance of Norris - which Piastri knew in advance would be critical for the opening lap.
“I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race,” he said.
“I'd been thinking about it for a while, put it that way.”
